Monthly reads: February 2022

 


Not many books, but I did read a lot of manga this month. These don't count here though, so...the little pile looks a bit sad. At least I also read two ebooks.

The Four Just Men (Edgar Wallace)

I don't know if that is just a German thing, but when I heard the name Edgar Wallace, I always thought of a series of film adaptions from the sixties. I never even really watched those films, but from what I know they have a pretty unique feel to them...I don't like to say cheap, but that is actually what I thought, so... So I never came around to read one of his books, but I picked up The Four Just Men for the Guardian 1000 list. And while it wasn't my new favourite crime novel, it was a pretty unique and interesting read. I liked how it felt like the book (or rather the author) clearly wanted the reader to feel sympathy for the dashing criminals called the Four Just Men...and it wasn't like I didn't understand their motivations. Yet I found myself rooting for the politician they were targetting. I'm sure I would absolutely disagree with the man on every single part of his political stance, but I came to admire his inner strenght and determination for his cause. Also, killing someone to stop a bill passing into law...that just doesn't work anymore. If it ever did, that is. That just isn't a legit option in politics, even if I might be hard to remember that in the current political climate.

Piccadilly Jim (PG Wodehouse)

I absolutely did not like this book, even when I was about halfway through. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore other Wodehouse stuff (mainly the Jeeves and Wooster books), but this one was just too much at times. Too much confusion, too many fake identities, too much scheming...I had a hard time keeping up with all this stuff and I didn't even really want to put in the effort because I couldn't really give a toss about most characters. However, I sort of liked the ending. It was funny and not overly complicated. Other than that, I think it shows that this was a pretty early work from Wodehouse because it's just not as polished as his later works. Also, this might work better as a film, and I rarely ever think that.

Das Versprechen (Friedrich Dürrenmatt)

I wouldn't have read this if it weren't for the Guardian 1000 list and frankly, I was glad that it was really short because I didn't like it at all. Of course it is hard to enjoy reading a book about children getting murdered, but even putting that aside...I didn't really see the appeal. It's meant to be a 'requiem on the crime novel', because crime novels with their detectives and lots of evidence left behind and perfect solutions for every case are so bad if we believe one of the characters in the book itself. Well, they might be, but it's frankly weird to compare a novel to a real criminal case, I think. Also, the book does just the very thing it was supposed to criticise: we get a pretty much asspull solution in the end. The difference is that there is no hero left to solve the case and no one ends up happy. Sure, life is like that...but I fear it doesn't make for a very good novel plot. Maybe it's just me though...there must be something about Friedrich Dürrenmatt's novels and plays that I just can't seem to see, or else he wouldn't be that well-known, right?

Sherlock Holmes oder Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Kutsche (Robert Newman)

Well, it's a children's book and I didn't know this at first...so I was seriously tempted to drop it after just a few pages. I don't like stories with children as main characters, I just don't know... However, this turned out to be a lot less annoying than expected and I liked the end, even though it was slightly cheesy. It was weird to read a Holmes story with a third-person narration. Not having Watson as the narrator just makes things feel very odd!

Die Ungetrösteten (Kazuo Ishiguro)

Ooof, what a weird book. But also a strangely compelling one. Frankly, I did expect the protagonist to wake up in the end, finding out that all of the stuff he just went through was nothing but a dream. But that moment never came, and so I'm left confused, but really intrigued. I can't really say much else about this book, only that I liked it in a really special way. I don't want to read it again, though. Oh, but I should add one thing: I never read a book before that recreated the feeling of my own bad dreams this well. This thing about entering a place which seems totally normal, just to leave it through another door and finding yourself in an entirely different and/or really weird place where nothing seems to make sense? Yeah...seems very familiar. Reading this book even induced the same odd, unpleasant feeling I have after waking from such a dream. But because it wasn't about me I also felt disconnected from that feeling, so it wasn't actually that bad and I just wanted to read on. Well, definitely an unique experience, to say the least.