Review: Oliver VII

It feels strange to be writing yet another review so soon! If I wake up tomorrow to find the sky beneath my feet I won't be surprised.

I wondered, briefly, whether I should hold this review off a little and make a lit corner of it as it doesn't suit the needs of any of my challenges (more's the pity), but then I decided to plough on ahead. After all, I don't know when next I'll read a book that doesn't satisfy a single one of the challenges I have undertaken. As a concession to my desire to label this post as a lit corner, I'll add in a little section about other books I have read this year which have not made it to the blog, and also a more general update on what I'm reading just now.

So, now that that's all over with...

Oliver VII by Antal Szerb.

I started reading this book last year, as I mentioned in a previous post. In the same post I said that I looked forward to diving back in, and dive I did. Oliver VII follows the eponymous hero: a king who finds himself in the somewhat unusual position of playing himself in a confidence trick.

Oliver, alias Oscar, secretly heads a coup against himself and escapes his fictional country of Alturia for Venice, neatly skipping out on an unfavourable deal to save the Alturian finances and a marriage to the pretty but naive Princess Ortrud.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It is thoroughly lighthearted and, as translator Len Rix writes in his afterword, does not contain a harsh word. I only found while reading the last quarter of the book that Szerb wrote this only two years before his death in a labour camp. Nothing in the book points to the persecution that Szerb faced and yet somehow this doesn't surprise me. I am not sure why, but somewhere I feel that perhaps that is how I might respond in a similar situation - maybe it is escapism, but I like to think that it is something else that drives the light hearted and extremely playful tone of this book.

I would like to take a moment to comment on my copy of the book. It is published by Pushkin Press, and obvious thought and dedication has gone into the feel of the book. The end page states that it is 'designed to be as satisfying as possible to hold and to enjoy' and they have not missed their mark at all. Somewhat smaller than average book size and printed on weighty paper with a gently textured cover, this book definitely pleased the girl who took great pains to write only on 80gsm paper for five years of her life. I feel it is only right to point out that this book is a pleasure in as many ways as can be imagined.

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Now onto the other books. I finished Stolthet och fördom (Pride and Prejudice) and naturally enjoyed it. It was a very quick read for me, as I know the story so well. I had previously tried reading the older translation available on Wiki commons, and found it didn't work for me. This newer translation from Gun-Britt Sundström, published by Albert Bonniers förlag was much more readable for me.

The second finished but unreviewed item is Kamisama Kiss vol. I, read in German. Again, this is a case where I was already familiar with the story. Also, it being a manga was a plus: less text, easier themes. I was still very much impressed with myself. I think I would like to continue buying the following volumes in German.

Finally, the 'Currently Reading List of Doom'. I am trying so desperately not to add another book onto the end of it! I absolutely have to get it down under twenty five before I pick up a new book. I'm closing in on this rather pathetic goal - finishing Oliver VII struck one book off, and I am making fairly good progress with Sabriel by Garth Nix, too. Less actively, I'm still making my way through Tintenherz with the read-along group I set up. Actually, I am very behind, but I am trying. I have also recently picked up Resa med lätt bagage (Travelling with light baggage) by Tove Jansson. This is another short story collection, but I am only intending to read one a weak. Kappan och Näsan (The Cloak and The Nose) by Gogol is also waiting patiently for me to return to it. But I don't think any of these will follow Sabriel in the order of which books I'll finish next. I'm thinking it'll be Ancilliary Justice but who knows when I'll pull a crazy stunt and find myself on the good end of Darkmans instead?

This has been a fairly long post, so I'll stop myself here.

Happy Reading,
Little Newman