Have read two of these #books, #TheEmpusium by #OlgaTokarczuk and #CreationLake by #RachelKushner. They’re both very good reads. #novels

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:qs6lqij3alrw4tbhpthicdso/post/3ls6lzc7pjg2s

Tockarczuk is never an easy lift — as to be expected from a Nobel-winner. This was, thankfully, not as heavy duty as The Books of Jacob which, epic in scale, was an endurance contest. Here, we have a book inside my sweet spot of 250-350 pages (301 to be exact), richly layered with well-researched historical contexts, curious characters and meta narratives on western culture’s chronic chauvinism. Tockarczuk pulls no punches. There is an epilogue that lists the real figures from literary history and beyond that she paraphrased when constructing the mysogynistic dialog between all the men. The tale is set in the early 20th century, in a German (now part of western Poland) mountain town, famous for having the largest resort facility for tuberculosis patients in the world. Our narrator appears to be supernatural, who tells us of our main character, Wojnicz and the band of men staying at the resort’s less expensive guesthouse. The narrator hints at the inner thoughts of Wojnicz but mostly remains somewhat clinical and linear in conveying the events during their stay at the resort. The last 15% of the book is the most dynamic. And the author could have found a way to embed that energy in the rest of the novel. Despite that, I enjoyed the blend of (mildly historical) fiction, philosophy, mystery/thriller and the paranormal. The twists of the final portion of the book were genuinely something I could not anticipate and found myself shocked and drawn further into the goings-on. Of all of Tockarczuk’s books, this is the one I think I would be most inclined to read again sometime.
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#theempusium #olgatockarczuk #horror #mystery #philosophy #germany #poland #historic #tuberculosis #ex_libris_jz

„Here we are, slightly changed,but just the same as before,warm but also cold,both seeing and blind. Here we are,here are our hands formed from decaying branches,our bellies,our nipples that are puffballs,our womb that blends into a fox's den, into the depths of the earth…“ #TheEmpusium (16)

„People have their fictions and believe what they have mutually agreed upon. But you know, it's not necessarily true that things are only like this or that.“ #Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium (15) We live in a time that has forgotten, that there is much more that binds us together than divides us.

„Schwärmerei made him feel like that hare, as if he were suspended above the table of a giant, and he even felt as if he were seeing everything upside down.“ #Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium (14)

„How is it that from tiny strokes of a brush dipped in paint an entire world with many depths comes into being? De Bles's painting seemed fathomless …“ #Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium (13)

“‘I'm going hunting, after all. But you know what, the point is to have a choice: to shoot or not to shoot. I don't want to kill the birds, I'm not hungry.‘ [Semperweiss] It occurred to Wojnicz that this was another version of his own „pheasant distance.“ #Tokarczuk24 #TheEmpusium

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:b33ym75vmzpjdfnxtji3yrsa/post/3lcg3ioh75k24

„O! why did God, Creator wise, that peopled highest Heaven With Spirits masculine, create at last This novelty on earth, this fair defect Of nature, and not fill the world at once With Men, as Angels, without feminine...“ #Tokarczuk24 (11) #TheEmpusium