Openbook閱讀誌
Openbook閱讀誌

臺灣非營利專業書評媒體。Openbook編輯部將提供原生報導,文化觀察,人物採訪與國內外重大出版消息。 https://linktr.ee/openbooktaiwan

Anglo-American Study" Shocking, Heartbreaking and Radiant, Douglas. Stewart's new writing about forbidden first love for men of two different faiths, and other artistic texts

Author| Sway, Bambook (writer)

/New Book Express/

■With his debut as "Dear Xia Ji. "Ban" (Wheat Field) won the 2020 Booker Prize, and recently won the Golden Pan Award, the literary sensation Douglas. Stewart, who published his second novel this spring, Young Mungo , describes two young men of different faiths who fall in love with each other's forbidden first loves. Mungo and James were born into two different worlds - Mungo is Protestant, James is Catholic. The two met at James' loft, became good friends and fell in love. Mungo has to do everything he can to hide his sexuality from those around him, especially the older brother of the local gang leader. A few months later, Mungo's mother sends him fishing with two men, but the camping trip hides great dangers...

Like "Dear Shaggy. Benn" and " Young Mungo " faithfully present the bottom life of Glasgow in the early 1990s. Stewart's Glasgow is full of religious opposition, poverty, alcoholism, domestic violence, sexual violence and other issues, but he uses poetic brushwork and precise precision. The layout unfolds the story, capturing the loveliness and pitifulness of each character. The book's many praises are shocking and heartbreaking, but it also promises readers that there will eventually be a light of hope at the end of the dark tunnel.

■Canadian award-winning best-selling author Emily St. John Mandel publishes her latest novel " Sea of Tranquility ", a science fiction work about art, time, love and plague. The story spans from Vancouver Island in the early 20th century to the lunar colony 500 years later: the son of a British earl who was exiled in 1912, a young woman who took a short film in the forest near her home in 1994, and a book on Earth from the lunar colony in 2203. Traveling female writers, and 25th century time-space detectives... They are linked together by a strange violin melody, thinking about the end of the world, time travel and the nature of existence. There are multiple Easter eggs alluding to Mandel's previous work, and some reviewers and readers believe this story is a series in its own right from Mandel's Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel .

Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel published the novel "Sea of Tranquility" (the picture on the right is taken from Emily St. John Mandele's official website)

■ Elliott Poetry Prize winner Wang Ouxing published his second collection of poems " Time Is a Mother ". In this collection of poems that touches deep emotions, Wang Ouxing searches for life in the aftershocks of his mother's death, showing the predicament that he is clearly determined to live beyond grief, but is deeply trapped in it. The 27 poems travel between memories and echo the theme of the previous novel "This Life, You and I Are Short and Bright". Wang Ouxing had to confront his personal loss, the meaning of family, and the price of living in the United States as the son of a Vietnam War refugee immigrant. His poetry is vivid, courageous, and propulsive, revolving around a fragmented life at the center of a quest for recovery and a crack at the same time.

Vietnamese-American poet Wang Ouxing published his second collection of poems "Time Is a Mother" (The picture on the right is taken from Ocean Vuong's official website, Photo: Tom Hines)

■Australian stand-up comedian and Emmy winner Hannah. Hannah Gadsby, for the stand-up comedy Hannah Gadsby on Netflix Hannah Gadsby: Nanette 's global popularity, proclaiming "This is my last performance" at the beginning, narrates his life experience, presenting a combination of criticism and introspection, jokes and tears. , a comedy show that couldn't be more sincere. Gatsby's autobiography " Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation " recently went on sale, dismantling and analyzing the creative process of "The Last Blow" step by step, filling in the details that were not in-depth in the performance.

  

In the book, Gatsby stated that she was not accepted by her peers and society because of her body size, autism, hyperactivity, sexual orientation and other factors. However, instead of putting her perpetrators in the spotlight, she details how counseling, comedy, and family relationships shaped her self-healing process, which ultimately allowed her to learn to live with her trauma. Don't worry, this book isn't the end of the book, and readers and audiences are bound to see more of Gatsby's performances in the future, she wrote: "I'll keep my best secret because my comedy exit is not over yet."

/Award news/

  

■The Rathbones Folio prize in the United Kingdom rewards the English works published in the previous year every year. There are no restrictions on novels, essays, poetry collections, memoirs, short stories, etc. In this year's 80 selected works, Irish writer Colm. Colm Tóibín's latest novel, The Magician , stands out. Tobin succeeded in 2004 as the American novelist Henry. James as the center, after writing the novel "Master" (published by the Times), once again the author's life is the topic, this time by the Nobel Prize writer Thomas. Mann takes the lead role in The Magician.

The story begins in a small town in northern Germany at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Thomas. Growing up in a well-off businessman family, Mann hid his desire to write and same-sex. After Thomas moved to Munich, he married Kaja, who came from a wealthy Jewish family, and gradually rose to prominence in the literary world, even winning the Nobel Prize for Literature. After the rise of the Nazis, the family fled Germany, went into exile in Europe, and settled in the United States until Thomas died in Switzerland in 1955. Although Tobin has spent 15 years researching relevant historical materials, he hopes that this book presents the story of a family in a chaotic age, rather than another historical research document. Judging from the folio literature award review, he has done it: "This is a Hongdae and ambitious novel that not only records the historical torrent of the 20th century, but also deeply depicts the unknown details of a man's life."

/Industry News/

■The three-day London Book Fair ended on April 7th. Although the organizer did not announce the actual number of visitors, the photos seemed to be lively. Finally, we can bid farewell to the epidemic, and the Ukrainian-Russian war has also come to an end.

The situation in Ukraine is undoubtedly one of the main topics of the London Book Fair, where there are many Russian immigrants and Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich is the owner of the famous Chelsea football club. There is a heated debate in the publishing world over whether major book fairs should stop doing business with Russian publishers altogether. Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, who attended the London Book Fair, also called for publishers to lead readers to the history of Ukraine and its relationship with Russia.

In addition to the situation in Ukraine, hot topics also include the impact of the epidemic. For example, the hybrid working model of office and home office has become the new normal. Publishing employees of all generations need to adapt. The publishers also encourage authors to write works that can respond to the current social situation. . The impact of Brexit on the UK publishing industry has gradually faded from the spotlight. The UK lowered the sales tax on e-books to 0% in May 2020, the same as paper books, and the EU passed the relevant regulations in April this year, but reserved it for member states to decide how to implement it.

  

The topic book of this year's book fair is nothing more than the new trilogy of the "Millennium Series" that sold the English copyright. This sequel is written by Swedish writer Karin Smirnoff. Another "big book" is "The Fantastic Drifting of Young Pi" by Yang. Martell's new novel Son of Nobody , a reinterpretation of the Trojan War from the perspective of a commoner's son, is due out in spring 2024.

This year's "Lifetime Achievement Award" at the London Book Fair was awarded to Hayakawa Hiroshi, head of Japan's Hayakawa Study, in tribute to his contribution to global publishing. Hayakawa Hiroshi served as the copyright manager of Hayakawa Study in the early days, introducing modern classics such as "The Godfather", "Jaws" and "Bouquet for Algernon". "Thinking Slowly" and Kazuo Ishiguro's "Long Days End" were introduced to Japan and are regarded as important promoters of science fiction, mystery and non-fiction in Japan.

Hayakawa Hiroshi. This image is taken from The London Book Fair

The British Quercus Publishing House and the American Knopf Publishing House signed the latest sequel to the "Millennium Series" this year. Karin Smirnoff, the best-selling Swedish reasoning writer, continues the wonderful stories of the hacker Salander and the reporter Blom West. Three novels are expected , the first piece will be published in the fall of 2023. Since "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (both in this series published by Lonely in Taiwan) came out in 2005, Stieg. Larson's "Millennium Series" trilogy was a worldwide sensation, and the adaptation of the film and the series was also very popular. Unfortunately, Larson died of a heart attack in 2004, too late to witness the publication and success of the series. After Larsen's death, Swedish journalist David W. LaGrange took over the writing baton and handed over three best-selling books including The Girl in the Spider's Web. Karin Smirnoff, the latest author of the "Millennium Series", immediately agreed to take over when he received the news, saying that he would continue Larson's core propositions, such as violence, abuse of power and contemporary political waves.

■The US Congress investigates the review of banned books in primary and secondary schools, and will hold a 3-hour congressional hearing on April 7. Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, citing data from the American Library Association (ALA), pointed out that about 1,600 books will be censored in 2021, the most in 20 years, and about 850 books will be censored in Texas alone. . PEN America also released on the same day that from July 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, a total of 1,586 books were banned in 86 elementary and middle schools in 26 states across the country, of which 41% had the protagonist or Important supporting roles are BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color), with 22% on race and racism, and 33% on LGBTQ issues. Ruskin said that many books today are censored simply because they address racism or white supremacy, human sexuality, and LGBTQ issues, on the grounds that the protagonist or author is gay, a person of color, or for some reason claimed to be objectionable .

African-American civil rights activist Ruby Bridges was invited to speak, and her children's autobiography, Ruby Bridges Goes To School: My True Story, was censored on the grounds that it might make white children uncomfortable. Bridges argues that if you want to ban books that are too truthful, you should also ban books that omit or distort the truth. Some parents may find the truth difficult to tell, but we cannot hide the truth from our children, and we should not tamper or distort history in any way.

 Note: In 1954, the U.S. court ruled that the school's racial segregation policy was unconstitutional and needed to be integrated within 6 years, but it was strongly resisted by the white community, and African-American families were reluctant to send their children to non-blacks out of many concerns 's school. Ruby Bridges (1954-) was the first African-American student after the desegregation of William Frantz Elementary School, an all-white elementary school in Louisiana. On her first day of school at the age of 6, four federal marshals escorted her and her mother to the school; all but one teacher in the school refused to teach black students; every day on the way to school, someone threatened to poison her, so the Marshals directly assigned by President Eisenhower allowed Bridges to eat only the food he brought from home at school.
African-American civil rights activist Ruby Bridges' children's autobiography "Ruby Bridges Goes To School" was also banned from censorship (right image from wiki)

/ Cross-media adaptation /

■ "normal people" author Sally. Rooney's debut novel "Chat History" published in 2017 is a remake of a mini-series, which will be broadcast on Hulu, an online streaming platform, from May 15. A trailer has been released in mid-April. The original cast of "Normal People" reunites: Written by Rooney and Alice Birch, and directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Sasha in "Hellman: Rise of the Blood". Laine (Sasha Lane), Jemima of HBO's "Girls My Biggest" Jemima Kirke, "Billy. Lynn's Halftime Battle" by Joe. Owen (Joe Alwyn) and newcomer Alison. Oliver (Alison Oliver) plays the leading role, composing the intricate emotions and interpersonal relationships between 3 women and 1 man. ●


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