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Showing posts with the label 120

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...

Paris in July 2021 - 120, rue de la Gare av Léo Malet

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Paris in July 2021 is hosted by Tamara at Thyme for Tea . Today I want to share with you a book I read last year for a Swedish on-line magazine. 120, rue de la Gare by Léo Malet is a different kind of detective story.   It was my first meeting with Léo Malet and it was a good one. He lived 1909-96 and was considered one of the best thriller writers in France. His name is connected to the genre 'noir' which he developed to perfection. Already in his first book, 120, rue de la Gare , which was published in France in 1943, one can clearly note one of the main characteristics of the genre; right and wrong are not clearly defined, or even possible to clarify, the characters all have flaws and the story often contains social taboos.  Detectives are a popular genre today.  One of the problems with this genre today, I think, is that they are terribly violent in their actions. The murders are crude, sadistic and generally bestial and it sometimes feels difficult to even read about...