SarahJanet's Books

Funeral Party

I finished The Funeral Party today, for one of my online book clubs. It was an interesting and unusual book, quite unlike anything I've ever read before. As I often find myself struggling with when I read books originally written in another language, I occasionally had trouble keeping the names straight, but the personalities were distinctive enough that I figured it out before too long. I think that's a fault of my own, for reading too fast. I occasionally think about forcing myself to read more slowly, but I'm not sure I could bring myself to do it.

When I read books like this, which are translated and full of very artistic language, I always feel like they kind of go over my head. Despite the fact that I do have an English degree from a perfectly respectable university, I am frequently reminded of the fact that when it boils right down to it, what I'm good at is children's lit, and that's hardly equipping me to deal with the major themes and images in intelligent literature.

But once we've discussed it, I'm sure I'll have a better feel for it. Things that I didn't pick out on a first read always appeared after a class discussion, so I'm optimistic that I'll get more out of this book after some other input on it.

posted by SarahJanet @ 5:24 PM