Reviews for Far from the Madding Crowd, Volume II

The average rating for Far from the Madding Crowd, Volume II based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-02-09 00:00:00 Ricco Marai I believe that the single best, and shortest, reason for recommending the reading of Arno Schmidt; just taking the simple=quick route here; is that a genius translator by the name of John E. Woods, the one responsible for making Thomas Mann speak English for generations to come, Mann himself being one of those two or three highest peaks of German literature ;; that Woods turned himself into a translator upon encountering the works of Schmidt. That when we read Schmidt in English we are also reading Woods; which is an opportunity not to be denied. Impossibility of translation, of a work as dense and linguistically=oceanic as Schmidt's? It's like saying that Beethoven's late string quartets can't be translated from page to string '{Woods' analogy; my perversion of said analogy}'. Never heard of Arno Schmidt? I know. I hadn't either until recently due to the services of aspirational readers here on goodreads. But consider ;; Angel-isch readers don't read in translation ; we are mono=munded even when bi=tongued folks are helping us out ;; and, secondly, anyone knowingly writing in the wake of The Wake ---!-!----? that's just suicide in the market. Doesn't help that he's German. There's an american writer I've been reading but don't know quite what to do with, name of John Hawkes. I like that--) not knowing what to do with what some artist is doing; something that doesn't fall easily into my claws. I like to look up from the page and ......----??_uh_?::-----(!?).......getbacktothat. Arno's full of this stuff. It's nice too to just sail on a story and we can read Barth without those whitcherjiggets getting caught between page and string. So to the stories. Our volume. My second book of Schmidt, one which I'll recommend here today as that place to stick your toe into the water without worry of eels or snapping turtles or other harm=doing=stuff ; of course by the end of this collection you'll be in the deeper end or at least the water in the pot has meanwhile gotten hotter and you might wonder Why the fuck didn't I jump out before this stuff started to melt my skin (?) said the frog to himself as he turned into a nice platter of legs with, well, what goes well with frog=legs? We are looking at three collections of short stories in this collection of short stories ; roughly chronological, but with some overlap. Begin at the byginning with Tales from Island Street (1955-1962), short-short little stories ; 16 little literary delights in 65 pages. It doesn't matter what yer reading remember ; you're just trying out the waters. Second, a set of frame tales featuring Stürenburg, surveyor in retirement, telling some stories about that one time he was out..... but his stories related by the same voice as in our previous collection, a bit of story=enframing here, that voice which you will find in all of Arno's fiction and may tire of ;; meanwhile "because you really never knew with Stürenburg's stories". (1955-59). And thirdly is where all of our Wake and Freud(e) just go hog=tyingly schweine=wild(!) and by the end of Country Matters (1960-64) (saved by someone from the schmidtianism "cunt=try matters") don't even ask what was going on there in "Caliban Upon Setebos" (final thing, more "novella") except that each Greek muse got a section heading. "Cows in Half Mourning" might be the better known of this sub=cool=lektion. And so here in Country Matters is where you'll want to cum=plete yer introduction to Arno ;; step-wise through the pleasantries of the heath and such=not of the first two collections, that toe into water, that kettle heating that water to cook your toe eventually ;; and then Country Matters and without the threat of one of Arno's Big Books you'll get a clue about why I and a few others have been scratching our heads with such pleasure these past few months. I mean, I don't know what I read there ::::: BUT I like it and all you little solipsistic little bubbles should like it too because there's more to life than a jolly little story ["stop it already ;; there's just, well, there's a lot of story in here--folks don't admit it but The Wake itself is f@@king jam=packed with storystorystory"]. Of course you might hate it and that will surprise no one... ________ The following just out of random association ;; Also, listen to Jeff Walker Und Die Fluffers playing Keep On Rocking In The Free World from Welcome to Carcass Cuntry. :: Then listen to Heartwerk :: Have a very guten tag!!! ______________ From the Woods introduction regarding Schmidt's unconventional punctuation conventions :: :: A note is also in order about the unusual punctuation of these texts, which is sure to look strange to the American eye. It reproduces that found in the German original. But why such slavish faithfulness in a translation? Perhaps Schmidt's own "Calculations III" may help explain: We are not dealing with a mania for originality or love of the grand gesture, but with . . . the necessary refinement of the writer's tool. I shall begin with punctuation. - It can be used as stenografy ! When I write : {She looked around : ?}, the out=come (with an "=", I despise Websterian rules for compound words : it's not an oútcome, but an oút=cóme !) is that the colon becomes the inquiring opened face, the question mark the torsion of the body turned to ask, and the whole of "The Question" retains its validity - no : is far better ! : the reader is intentionally not force-fed a stale salad of words, à la {and she asked : "What is it ?"} . . . Let us retain the lovely=essential freedom to reproduce a hesitation precisely : "well - hm - : Idunno - - : can we do that . . . . . . ." (Instead of the rigidly prescribed : "Well, I don't know . . ." . . . Perhaps many will wonder why I sometimes place the period before the parenthesis; sometimes after; sometimes use none at all : I have my reasons - in almost every case (and with a little thought, anyone could discover them." That "almost every" is a hedge--yes, Schmidt usually had his reasons, but sometimes he was careless. Despite his avowals of meticulously orchestrated punctuation, I must admit I often find no real consistency; usage varies from text to text and can even seem out of sync within a given text. But rather than attempt to correct this or that usage or rigorously substitute American conventions, I thought it best simply to preserve the original visual textuality. End of quotation of Woods and his quoting of Schmidt. I think I got everything transcribed accurately. But I've used "{ }" instead of the carrot quote thing ("< >") as a work-around to work around this html thing of which I do not have a handle.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-02-02 00:00:00 Louise Franklin The hail was getting downright life-threatening ! (I & many horses of those regions had bumps and bruises the next day.) / We beheaded ourselves into the under=fir. Crouched beneath the barby weir(= bony wire-hair) of what had perished below. And simply waited. -. Overhead divinities, be generous and lavish us with stars- these Collected deserve at least TEN. Comprised of three collections, there is a tenderness and mastery which is beyond provocative, it is a heavy hearted triumph of the literary instinct. As the reader swells in appreciation, he finds a lump in his cautious throat: what is this but a Joyce with a Dickens soul. Hmyes - There is a trepidation in these dark woods. Shit, that's why I pranced about for years collecting these volumes without an emboldened foot forward . So all you pups and kittens take an moment and browse both Trading Keys and and then convince yourself that this madcap madrasa is indeed the Shining Path to personal enrichment and relative obscurity. I do offer a warning. Mentioning Schmidt will afford you no favors at the Stupor Bowl party your attending this evening with fellow Rotarians and binge-viewers of TLC and The Voice. No, best keep that eschatology to yourself.