Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin, Aneesa Abbas Higgins (Translator)

A literary debut by a French Korean author. This was a short novel of 154 pages. My library did not have the original French version. I would have been curious to compare them even though my French is probably not good enough for literary analysis. Translation seemed good though. The book was strong on character work and setting which are my two pathways. The unnamed narrator was unmoored and became fascinated with a visiting French comic artist. They explored her seaside hometown of Sokcho in winter. No one was really likeable but the pacing was just right. If it were a longer novel, I’d have disliked it. There was an ambiguous ending. I do not generally like very ambiguous literary endings, but it did not feel too bad here. Nice short litfic to start off Women in Translation month. I like reading about winter in summer.

August 1-3, 2024. Started first few pages on Kobo Mini.

James by Percival Everett

Narrated by Dominic Hoffman. Audiobook listened and immersive reading for about 40% to of the book. A very hyped 2024 release that was recently long listed for the Booker. This was understandably a heavy book and normally, I would avoid it due to the content warnings. However, I really liked Jim from the Mark Twain novel and I hoped to get more from the character here. The Jim in this book different but still heroic and very compelling. This novel was like the best fan fiction. It was cathartic. The book does not really follow the original novel and there were a couple of melodramatic moments. I still think it was really well written and purgative. A gripping reimagining and historical fiction of an African American slave in the south.

Reflecting on James over a week later, I still do not regret reading it and even enjoyed it. However, there was a rape scene. On Storygraph, it was tagged as moderate. It was graphic enough for me. I reflected how I really do not wish to read about significant sexual assault content unless in some exceptional context. This prompted me to weed several TBR print books which included a lot of literary fiction award winners. I do not mind some dark topics and it is very subjective how each reader tags and rates content warnings. Overall, unless I am getting strong recommendations on some books, it’s better to take out the ones with content that I know will bother me. There are too many other books without it.

1.25-2.5x. August 3-4, 2024.