Comments for Rosenthals read http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com Two sisters write about what they read Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:40:20 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 Comment on House Rules: A Memoir; Rachel Sontag, 2008. by abbyreads http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/house-rules-a-memoir-rachel-sontag-2008/#comment-31 abbyreads Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:40:20 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=14#comment-31 Wow. I'm amazed at the persistence of the childhood (and Dostoevskian) feeling that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, when sometimes when you grow up, you find out that other people were unhappy in almost precisely the same way you were. Or, at least close enough for a memoir to sound a little bit like it's coming out of your own mouth. There's something really powerful about reading something that strikes home -- undercutting the persistent feeling that your own tragedies are _so_ unique, in both good and bad ways. Anyhow, I'd better go find a copy of this. Wow. I’m amazed at the persistence of the childhood (and Dostoevskian) feeling that every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, when sometimes when you grow up, you find out that other people were unhappy in almost precisely the same way you were. Or, at least close enough for a memoir to sound a little bit like it’s coming out of your own mouth. There’s something really powerful about reading something that strikes home — undercutting the persistent feeling that your own tragedies are _so_ unique, in both good and bad ways.

Anyhow, I’d better go find a copy of this.

]]> Comment on House Rules: A Memoir; Rachel Sontag, 2008. by Linda Athis http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/06/27/house-rules-a-memoir-rachel-sontag-2008/#comment-30 Linda Athis Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:14:52 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=14#comment-30 Hi ladies, I came across your review of this book and wanted to share mine with you. www.forgivingmom.com Hi ladies,

I came across your review of this book and wanted to share mine with you.

http://www.forgivingmom.com

]]> Comment on Territory. Emma Bull, 2007. by haikubyrosie http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/territory-emma-bull-2007/#comment-28 haikubyrosie Thu, 22 May 2008 21:23:40 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=12#comment-28 Very excited to pick up a book of hers. Even more exciting to know she isn't a one trick pony and that she writes different kinds of stories. I need to get to the library...I have picked up Morgan's habit of always buying books instead of borrowing them and it is really silly. Although we do have a really good used book store here. Very excited to pick up a book of hers. Even more exciting to know she isn’t a one trick pony and that she writes different kinds of stories. I need to get to the library…I have picked up Morgan’s habit of always buying books instead of borrowing them and it is really silly. Although we do have a really good used book store here.

]]> Comment on Unaccustomed Earth. Jumpha Lahiri, 2008 by abbyreads http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/unaccustomed-earth-jumpha-lahiri-2008/#comment-22 abbyreads Sun, 18 May 2008 02:55:55 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=11#comment-22 I feel exactly the same way about Lahiri's work, although I haven't had a chance to read "Unaccustomed Earth" yet. I was really swept away by "Interpreter of Maladies" and then picked up "The Namesake," her only novel (I think) and was kind of like, really? Sad Bengali-Americans? Interestingly, though, I was much more impressed with her writing when she stayed with those themes than when she ventured off more into the lives of the second generation -- she seems to really thrive (authorially speaking) on that kind of suffocation and alienation that characterizes her first generation protagonists. Anyhow, thanks for capturing her style and approach so well, and I probably will pick up this latest book when I come across it, even with my quibbles. I feel exactly the same way about Lahiri’s work, although I haven’t had a chance to read “Unaccustomed Earth” yet. I was really swept away by “Interpreter of Maladies” and then picked up “The Namesake,” her only novel (I think) and was kind of like, really? Sad Bengali-Americans? Interestingly, though, I was much more impressed with her writing when she stayed with those themes than when she ventured off more into the lives of the second generation — she seems to really thrive (authorially speaking) on that kind of suffocation and alienation that characterizes her first generation protagonists. Anyhow, thanks for capturing her style and approach so well, and I probably will pick up this latest book when I come across it, even with my quibbles.

]]> Comment on The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, 2006 by abbyreads http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/the-911-report-a-graphic-adaptation-sid-jacobson-and-ernie-colon-2006/#comment-21 abbyreads Thu, 15 May 2008 15:12:52 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=5#comment-21 I can only say that, in the intricate lines of his wrinkles and depths of his rugged shadows, I may have seen heaven. Honestly, it was very lovingly rendered. I can only say that, in the intricate lines of his wrinkles and depths of his rugged shadows, I may have seen heaven.

Honestly, it was very lovingly rendered.

]]> Comment on The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon, 2006 by Jesse http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/04/27/the-911-report-a-graphic-adaptation-sid-jacobson-and-ernie-colon-2006/#comment-20 Jesse Wed, 14 May 2008 19:19:56 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=5#comment-20 Wow I had never heard of this genre before. I saw bunches of people reading the whole 9/11 report on the airplane which, by the way, is tacky. Can't do that kind of stuff. Can't show that old Wesley Snipes movie or Air Force One on planes, and you can't read a report about planes crashing into buildings. Not appropriate for flying. Read it at home. Plus, you're right, the report looked hella dense and hella long. It amazed me so many people were buying it. Next thing you know, people may actually be picking up the 2008 federal budget and seeing how much money we're spending and how little of it we're making. OK I'll stop talking about federal fiscal policy. You never told us - is Rumsfeld more or less dreamy up close? Wow I had never heard of this genre before. I saw bunches of people reading the whole 9/11 report on the airplane which, by the way, is tacky. Can’t do that kind of stuff. Can’t show that old Wesley Snipes movie or Air Force One on planes, and you can’t read a report about planes crashing into buildings. Not appropriate for flying. Read it at home. Plus, you’re right, the report looked hella dense and hella long. It amazed me so many people were buying it. Next thing you know, people may actually be picking up the 2008 federal budget and seeing how much money we’re spending and how little of it we’re making.

OK I’ll stop talking about federal fiscal policy. You never told us – is Rumsfeld more or less dreamy up close?

]]> Comment on Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand. Fred Vargas, 2004 by Jesse http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/wash-this-blood-clean-from-my-hand-fred-vargas-2004/#comment-19 Jesse Wed, 14 May 2008 19:09:28 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=6#comment-19 Translation ain't easy, that's for sure. I always imagine professional translators as being in a trance of sort, like top actors. In this vision, they become the author and subconsciously subordinate their own sense of style for the sake of the book. Sometimes this doesn't work out. P.S. I have a strange fascination with the French. Translation ain’t easy, that’s for sure. I always imagine professional translators as being in a trance of sort, like top actors. In this vision, they become the author and subconsciously subordinate their own sense of style for the sake of the book.

Sometimes this doesn’t work out.

P.S. I have a strange fascination with the French.

]]> Comment on The Story of General Dann and Mara’s Daughter, Griot and The Snow Dog. Doris Lessing, 2005 by diana.r.welch http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/the-story-of-general-dann-and-maras-daughter-griot-and-the-snow-dog-doris-lessing-2005/#comment-7 diana.r.welch Fri, 09 May 2008 00:04:46 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=8#comment-7 This is engaging and funny! I like how you insert so much personal reference into your review, and not because I know you, but because I feel like it shapes a review in a new way. This is engaging and funny! I like how you insert so much personal reference into your review, and not because I know you, but because I feel like it shapes a review in a new way.

]]> Comment on Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand. Fred Vargas, 2004 by Kathleen Molloy http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/wash-this-blood-clean-from-my-hand-fred-vargas-2004/#comment-4 Kathleen Molloy Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:08:34 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=6#comment-4 I don't envy the job of translators. They are given a work to retell and as you state sometimes the original is a disaster. Are they obligated to work with the mess or are they given some room to improve it? I guess it depends on the publishing house and the author. I had the good fortune of working with a Quebec-born translator who reworked my novel Dining with Death into La Mort au menu. The first question she asked was who the Francophone reader was. It was a story about how Canadians put seniors out to pasture and all of the references were Canadian so I insisted that we would use Canadian French. Well, she needed to know if that meant Acadian, Quebec, eastern Ontario, western Canadian and I narrowed it down to Quebec French. I'm an Anglophone writer in Western Quebec so all of the French jokes that I knew were Quebec jokes. She was well into her first draft of the translation when we realized that although the translation was excellent, some of the references didn't make sense. Dining with Death is set south of Winnipeg. It didn't make sense that the characters in Manitoba would understand Quebec political jokes. We decided to do an adaptation and that turned into a rewrite of many of the scenes and some full chapters.La Mort au menu is written for Quebecers and I'm afraid that this is at the expense of Franco-Canadians that don't live in Quebec. Oh they'll get the pop culture references and most of the jokes but they won't see themselves in the story very much. Once the book was adapted, the copy-editors sliced and diced it, and then the proof reader waved her magic red pen. My France-born proof reader said things like "I know that they say this in Quebec...but it isn't correct." But it was correct for Quebecers. And she would italicise Quebec slang as being foreign words and that drove me bonkers. But she was excellent and she knew her stuff and as the final specialist that worked through La Mort au menu I couldn't have brought the adaptation to light without her. All this to say that I agree with your concern that there are good translations and bad translations and unfortuantely some authors don't know the difference. But on the flip side there are some gems and these translators open up works and cultures that we would otherwise have no access to. Through their skills they are not only retelling a story but telling their own story too. For this I applaud them. Kathleen Molloy, author - La Mort au menu www.lamortaumenu.ca www.kathleenmolloy.offo.ca www.diningwithdeath.ca I don’t envy the job of translators. They are given a work to retell and as you state sometimes the original is a disaster. Are they obligated to work with the mess or are they given some room to improve it? I guess it depends on the publishing house and the author. I had the good fortune of working with a Quebec-born translator who reworked my novel Dining with Death into La Mort au menu. The first question she asked was who the Francophone reader was. It was a story about how Canadians put seniors out to pasture and all of the references were Canadian so I insisted that we would use Canadian French. Well, she needed to know if that meant Acadian, Quebec, eastern Ontario, western Canadian and I narrowed it down to Quebec French. I’m an Anglophone writer in Western Quebec so all of the French jokes that I knew were Quebec jokes. She was well into her first draft of the translation when we realized that although the translation was excellent, some of the references didn’t make sense. Dining with Death is set south of Winnipeg. It didn’t make sense that the characters in Manitoba would understand Quebec political jokes. We decided to do an adaptation and that turned into a rewrite of many of the scenes and some full chapters.La Mort au menu is written for Quebecers and I’m afraid that this is at the expense of Franco-Canadians that don’t live in Quebec. Oh they’ll get the pop culture references and most of the jokes but they won’t see themselves in the story very much. Once the book was adapted, the copy-editors sliced and diced it, and then the proof reader waved her magic red pen. My France-born proof reader said things like “I know that they say this in Quebec…but it isn’t correct.” But it was correct for Quebecers. And she would italicise Quebec slang as being foreign words and that drove me bonkers. But she was excellent and she knew her stuff and as the final specialist that worked through La Mort au menu I couldn’t have brought the adaptation to light without her. All this to say that I agree with your concern that there are good translations and bad translations and unfortuantely some authors don’t know the difference. But on the flip side there are some gems and these translators open up works and cultures that we would otherwise have no access to. Through their skills they are not only retelling a story but telling their own story too. For this I applaud them.

Kathleen Molloy, author – La Mort au menu
http://www.lamortaumenu.ca
http://www.kathleenmolloy.offo.ca
http://www.diningwithdeath.ca

]]> Comment on Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand. Fred Vargas, 2004 by abbyreads http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/2008/04/29/wash-this-blood-clean-from-my-hand-fred-vargas-2004/#comment-3 abbyreads Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:58:44 +0000 http://rosenthalsread.wordpress.com/?p=6#comment-3 I'm super thrilled to be able to add the phrase "what have you been up to, with all that mud on your pants?" to my everyday repertoire, without having to read an entire poorly translated and possibly insane book. I intend to use it as often as possible. Thanks for taking the bullet for all of us on this one. I’m super thrilled to be able to add the phrase “what have you been up to, with all that mud on your pants?” to my everyday repertoire, without having to read an entire poorly translated and possibly insane book. I intend to use it as often as possible. Thanks for taking the bullet for all of us on this one.

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