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Tag: translation

Ordinary Victories, Manu Larcenet

Published 7 Jul 2009 by Gin Jenny

I got this at the library because I am always on the hunt for good graphic novels, and it said THE BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL OF ALL TIME EVER or something like that on the front.  I believed this because I’m easily taken in by the printed word.  Fortunately for me, this may actually be one of the best graphic novels of all time ever.  I loved it.  I really, really loved it.  It’s translated – I didn’t even care!  Hooray for Joe Johnson, the stalwart translator!  Mr. Johnson, you have done an excellent job in translating, and thanks for that,…

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The Witch of Portobello, Paulo Coehlo

Published 13 Jun 2009 by Gin Jenny

Oh, this started out so promisingly.  I loved the idea of a bunch of different people telling the story of this one women.  I loved how the book would create a space around her that would leave you wondering and wondering what she was thinking all along – like The Moonstone does with Rachel, you know?  There are several different narrators, and they all talk about the mysterious, recently-murdered Athena.  The witch of Portobello. I was thrilled!  I thought Paulo Coehlo was my Next Big Thing!  However, the book ended up sort of preachy, and the dialogue fell prey to…

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The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery, Alison Anderson (trans.)

Published 5 Jun 2009 by Gin Jenny

So this is a really good translation.  It sounds French, if that makes any sense – the words from the people sound like things that would come out of the mouths of my French friends (if they felt like talking about Tolstoy, which so far they have not shown any particular inclination to do) – but without the awkwardness that bugs me in so many translations of foreign novels. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is about a concierge who has spent her life pretending to be stupid so that nobody will notice her.  She is fairly isolated, as you can…

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Little Boy Lost, by Marghanita Laski

Published 7 Jan 2008 by Gin Jenny

Recommended by: imani, more or less. Or rather, she mentioned The Victorian Chaise-Longue, also by Marghanita Laski, and I picked up Little Boy Lost at the library at the same time. So “recommended” is actually a pretty big stretch on this, but whatever. For a while I was convinced that this book had to be in translation. It just had these weird bits that you get when you are reading books in translation, and the author’s name is unusual and might quite easily have been foreign; and anyway I was all set to write this review and say I hate…

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