*The Bridge on the Drina* does indeed describe horrors (e.g., vivid
descriptions
of impalement), but it's also a sweeping history of Turkish rule in
what is
now Serbia, Bosnia, etc.). The Turks are not depicted as devils, even
by Andric
(Yugoslavia's Nobel prize-winner), but as, yes, a civilizing force.
They built
bridges. They introduced good governance. Probably coffee too.
Btw, one book I remember starting to read back when I was a teenager and
being unable to continue (I did read the whole thing some years
later) was
John Hersey's *Hiroshima*.
Hal
"Theory, like mist on eyeglasses,
obscures vision."
--Charlie Chan
Halvard Johnson
================
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On Apr 27, 2007, at 10:22 AM, Jennifer Compton wrote:
> The Bridge Over The River Drina doesn't suck - but it is way too
> much for me. It describes horrors - the same sort of horrors that
> happened and still happen - and I know they happen, but in the book
> they got right under my skin and I simply couldn't read on.
>
> There is a South American poet I think who wrote something like
>
> "There is nothing one man will not do to another."
>
> Something like that.
> So you know back to the Mills And Boon for me - can't cope with the
> realities of history. Or indeed with the realities of the present day.
>
> cheers - jen
>
> ----Original Message Follows----
> From: Alison Croggon <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: "Poetryetc: poetry and poetics" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: saddest book ever written? most repellent?
> Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 23:22:13 +1000
>
> This also made me curious enough to look it up. Library Journal
> reviews it
> thusly:
>
> Zimbabwean Vera has received wide acclaim in her homeland but is
> relatively
> unknown in the United States, where her work has appeared in an
> anthology
> and through a small press. Her latest novel is a rare work of beauty,
> capturing the oft-tragic poetry of life in a black township of
> Rhodesia in
> the 1940s. Surrounded by poverty and oppression, where blacks are
> not even
> permitted to walk on the pavement, young Phephelaphi searches for
> her own
> freedom and fulfillment in spite of the love of Fumbatha, a
> construction
> worker more than twice her age. Vera's phrasing and style make
> mundane tasks
> like cutting tall grass or waiting for a train sing with a music
> all their
> own and give a simple story of love, longing, and betrayal a lyric
> quality.
>
> Not that I think Library Journal is the be-all and end-all, but I'm
> curious
> what causes the sucking. Poor people? Lyric beauty? Cutting tall
> grass?
>
> All best
>
> Alison
>
> On 4/27/07, kasper salonen <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> > Can't read it. Makes me vomit. My friend Niksa in Zagreb tells
>> me he had
>> to
>> > read it when he was a pre teen. I can't get through it. Awful awfui
>> awful
>> > book. Disgusting book. Loathesome.
>> >
>>
>> that sounds precisely like the book I have to read for my entrance
>> exam in june; 'Butterfly Burning' by Yvonne Vera. good lord it sucks
>>
>> KS
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> Editor, Masthead: http://www.masthead.net.au
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Home page: http://www.alisoncroggon.com
>
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