What I’ve been reading
Key Takeaways
- •Gerald Martin's biography of Mario Vargas Llosa disappointed the reviewer by focusing on the 2010 Nobel laureate's personal life rather than his ideas, Peruvian politics, or the development of the Latin American novel.
- •Sean Mathews' The New Byzantines examines Greece's Ottoman roots, the early 20th-century Balkan Wars, Greco-Turkish war, and 1923 population exchange, along with Greece's markedly warmer relations with Israel since the 2010s.
- •Simon Morrison's book describes how Lina Prokofiev, a singer who married Sergei Prokofiev in 1923 and grew up in Brooklyn, was arrested in 1951 on spying charges and spent years in the Gulag before her release in 1956.
- •Emily Wilson, translator of a 2017 Odyssey that was the first English version of the poem by a woman and of a 2023 Iliad, is praised as a superior intellectual presence despite controversy surrounding her.
- •Munir Hachemi's The Mulai is characterized as a somewhat unusual but intriguing science fiction work in the direction of Ursula LeGuin that the reviewer intends to continue reading.
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Gerald Martin, Mario Vargas Llosa: A Life. This is a good book if you want to read about Vargas Llosa’s strange sex life, beginning early in his life. If you are more interested in the history of ideas, Peruvian politics, or the development of the Latin American novel, it is far less compelling — even though the 2010 Nobel laureate’s career spans the Latin American Boom and includes a 1990 run for the Peruvian presidency. Martin, who also wrote the 2008 biography of Gabriel García Márquez, keeps the focus on the man rather than the ideas. For me, it was a disappointment.
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Sean Mathews, The New Byzantines: The Rise of Greece and Return of the Near East. This is a consistently interesting account of Greece, the Ottoman roots in the region, the radical changes brought by the early 20th century — an era whose Balkan Wars, Greco-Turkish war, and 1923 population exchange remade the region’s demography after the Ottoman collapse — and Greece’s relations with Israel, a relationship that has warmed markedly since the 2010s, among other topics. The book has the virtue of trying to explain how things actually are, which is sadly not true of all books.
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Simon Morrison, The Love & Wars of Lina Prokofiev. I found this more suspenseful and interesting than any biography of Prokofiev I have read. That is fitting, since Lina, a singer who married Sergei Prokofiev in 1923, spent decades in the Soviet Union and was arrested in 1951 on spying charges, serving years in the Gulag before her release in 1956. I had not known that Lina Prokofiev grew up in Brooklyn. Morrison, a Princeton musicologist and one of the leading Prokofiev scholars, tells it with pace. I am happy to recommend Morrison’s books more generally.
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Emily Wilson, Crossing the Wine-Dark Sea: Journeys through Ancient Literature. Wilson has become a controversial figure for a variety of not-so-merited reasons, but the simpler truth is that she is a superior intellectual presence and mind, so you should be reading what she writes, whatever your views. She is the translator of a much-discussed 2017 Odyssey — the first English version of the poem by a woman — and of a 2023 Iliad. My two favorite essays in this volume were the one on Logue’s War Music, Christopher Logue’s free-standing “account” of the Iliad rather than a literal translation, and the closing piece on translations of The Odyssey.
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Munir Hachemi, The Mulai. This is a somewhat loopy but intriguing science fiction story, broadly in the direction of Ursula LeGuin. I am not sure what to think of it, but I will definitely keep reading.
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