martes, 28 de febrero de 2012

Lecturas de verano

Termina el verano en que terminé Guerra y Paz. También leí The Sense of an Ending, de Julian Barnes, y Guns, de Ed McBain, todo esto intercalado por The Collected Stories de Lorrie Moore. Debo decir que, por primera vez, Barnes me desilusionó, quizás porque siempre espero mucho de él. McBain me dio exactamente lo que quería: una lectura divertidísima que duró menos de un día; extrañaba leer un policial, en este caso un relato de crimen. Pero Lorrie Moore... que genia. Miren estas dos citas (traducción mía a la volada abajo de cada una):

“Marriage, she felt, was a fine arrangement generally, except than one never got it generally. One got it very, very specifically. (...) With its sweet, urgent beginnings, and grateful, hand-holding end, marriage was always its worst in the middle: it was always a muddle, a ruin, an unnavigable field.” “Real Estate”, de Birds of America (1998).

“Ella sentía que el matrimonio era generalmente un buen arreglo, excepto que una nunca lo tenía generalmente. Una lo tenía muy, muy específicamente. (...) Con sus dulces y urgentes comienzos, y un agradecido final tomados de las manos, el matrimonio siempre era peor en el medio: era siempre un lío, una ruina, un campo innavegable.” “Real Estate”, de Birds of America (1998).

“I was living in that awful stage of life from the age of twenty-six to thirty-seven known as stupidity. It’s when you don’t know anything, not even as much as you did when you were younger, and you don’t even have a philosophy about all the things you don’t know, the way you did when you were twenty or would again when you were thirty-eight.” “Strings to Short to Use”, de Anagrams (1986).

“Yo estaba viviendo en esa horrenda etapa de la vida entre los veintiséis y los treintaisiete conocida como estupidez. Es cuando no sabés nada, ni siquiera lo que sabías cuando eras más joven, y ni siquiera tenés una filosofía acerca de todas las cosas que no sabés, como tenías cuando tenías veinte y tendrás de nuevo cuando tengas treintaiocho.” “Strings to Short to Use”, de Anagrams (1986).



2 comentarios:

  1. What you say about Barnes is fairly common... once in a while every author will disappoint us a little. I have never read Lorrie Moore, but I think that she shows real insight into recognizing life's ups and downs and trying to deal with them. Now that you have successfully tackled "War and Peace" perhaps you might want to watch the film of it from 30 or 40 years ago...the one with the young Anthony Hopkins in it...it is great! (and long, of course!)

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  2. Thanks, Sammy. I'm not sure about the War and Peace film: last year I read Anna Kareninna and a compilation of shorter works, plus War and Peace. I've had enough Tolstoy for a while I guess. Read some Lorrie Moore: she's great. Birds of America seems to be incredible. Abrazo!

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