World Novels 7-25-21

Try The Modern Literary Novel site here with its emphasis on the translated novel.  The site describes itself as follows:

The purpose of this site is to give an idiosyncratic view of modern (i.e. more or less 20th/21st century) literature, as represented by the novel. It is biased towards my taste and towards the English-speaking world and Europe. You will find very little reference to short stories, drama, poetry and other literary forms, not because I do not consider them worthwhile but because I have less interest in and knowledge of them.

Most, though certainly not all, the books mentioned here have been published in English, though many are now sadly out-of-print. This site is strictly non-academic. I am not and have never been an academic and have aimed it at the intelligent reader who reads modern literature for pleasure.

And there is a blog included in the site:

Among the Japanese writers are Kenzaburo Oe, and Haruki Murakami, whom I have read. There is a very enlightening review of Murakami's Kafka on the Shore - a novel I have read and impressed by and for which my notes will probably appear in the future - and Killing Commendatore - and his view is similar to hmine (mine was negative and will also to appear here in the future). With Kenzaburo Oe's A Personal Matter there is pretty much a plot summary compared to what he does with the Murakami books.

With the Europeans here has: 

• Milan Kundera -  The Joke  gets a short summary while The Unbearable Lightness of Being   gets some serious criticism.

• László Krasznahorkai has and external links

• Magda Szabó's article has a comment on Abigail - including a plot description better than you will get from me and a positive conclusion.

• David Albahari has a bio paragraph, some links but no commentary on Gotz and Meyer, the only novel I have read by Albahari

• Mikhail Bulgakov appears with a comment on The Master and Margarita - which of course he likes (and who doesn’t?)

• Victor Pelevin gets a bio paragraph and comments on several of Pelevin’s books but not A Werewolf Problem in Central Russia

• Georgi Gospodinov  -  a paragraph for a bio, links and gets a discussion of his Natural Novel which concludes with:

...In the end… What? He sits in his battered and much repaired rocking chair. He becomes a tramp and his old friends don’t recognise him any more. In the end, nothing. This is not a realist novel so, while it can have multiple beginnings, it really does not need a conventional end. It is very well done and very well written. If this does not kill the realist novel, nothing will.