It would read as current, because the struggles he faced continue to exist for many, unfortunately, and go unrealized by many others.
I read it decades ago and years later, when I volunteered at U.S. inner-city schools (a high school and two grade schools decades apart), what I observed resonated with the book.
Reading wise, the book gave me similar feelings of desperation, oppressiveness and struggle as Madame Bovary or House of Mirth, though they’re written differently.
Tangentially, House of Mirth and other Edith Wharton books are among my favorites fiction wise. She was prolific, an American with rich European exposure.
You are right about reading “A Fine Balance” with a box of tissues at hand! What a book! It’s long, but I read it in 4 days while travelling. I couldn’t put it down.
A few months ago my book club read, ALL BUT MY LIFE, by Gerda Weissmann Klein. It’s her memoir of her life and heavy emphasis on her three years in labor camps and three months of forced winter march during the Holocaust as a young woman. The book has been in print for more than 50 years and read around the world. She is a gifted writer and I have loaned out this book many times since. She was born in Poland in 1924 and moved to Arizona, USA, after being liberated. How she met her husband is a Hollywood story in itself. She had many happy decades with him and she passed away at age 92. Highly recommend.
I do that, too. That way, I discovered Laura Restrepo in Colombia, Slam dog millionaire in India, before the film was shot and lots of others. I also revisited George Orwell in Myanmar, reading Burmese days.
I don’t think I have read anything written by a New Zealander author and may be interested in reading this book. Why is it not an easy read? Is it because the reality depicted is hard or is it difficult to understand or focus the attention on the thread?
Isabel Allende is one of my favourite authors. I have read most of her books, including the ones you mentioned. In fact, right now I’m reading My name is Emilia del Valle. The house of the spirits is one of my favourites and I also love the film. I think Meryl Streep is fantastic there.
I wouldn’t say I love brutal books but apparently ‘Once We’re Warriors’ was heavily influenced by the author’s childhood experiences and his observations of poverty, domestic violence and dysfunction within some Māori communities.
Once were warriors in my mind was & still is a reflection of how life is/can be for any Pakeha/Pacifika/Maori/etc etc family anywhere. Written in the 90’s but there are places here in NZ where Black Power/The Mongrel Mob/The Filthy Few are still very very much a part of how life is handled in many areas etc. I’ll explain a bit more when i’m back from the gym .
It sounds interesting. I think it’s important to know about the past and try to learn from it. But given the current situation, I am not sure we are able to learn at all. Black listing books like The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank doesn’t help either.
I’ve just remembered two books that I read when I went to South Africa that really impacted me: Red Dust, by Gillian Slovo
and the Good Doctor by Damon Galgut, both dealing with post-apartheid South Africa but also universal themes about personal conscience conflicts and the level of involvement in society. Really eye opening.
I would like to know if other forum members have been impacted by books they have read when visiting a country or specific area.
Just before leaving for Ilkley this morning I grabbed Mrs Gaskell’s ‘The Life of Charlotte Bronte’ which seems appropriate as I’m not far from her home in Haworth
-Moomins, by Tove Jansson. There are several books, and they are not only for children. The stories have multiple layers for all ages.
-Emmi Itäranta writes beautiful, melancolic but hopeful dystopy/scifi/fantasy. The interesting thing about her is, that she writes all her books in English and in Finnish, simultaneously by herself.
Thanks for the information. I must admit I hadn’t heard of Tove Jansson. Now, I have searched a bit and it seems she’s one of the best known writers in Finland.
from Scotland, the Peter May Inspector Logan crime fiction books, starting with the trilogy.
These are crimes set in the Outer Hebrides, 100 miles west of Scotland, I visit there annually, and love these stories, they feature real places, which have now become a tourist trail in their own right.
I had never heard of him when I first visited. He also wrote /directed the Gaelic tv drama Machair
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