Comments on: Aharon Appelfeld: Badenheim 1939

By: Trevor

Trevor — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:51:29 +0000

Myself, I’m hoping to get the whole collection someday, but there are certain ones that I hope to acquire sooner than later — and Modiano’s looks great.

By: Stewart

Stewart — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:37:19 +0000

My usual Waterstone’s a few Godine titles. The one that interests me most is Patrick Modiano’s Missing Person, although the others seem just as interesting.

By: Are book blogs and novellas made for each other?

Are book blogs and novellas made for each other? — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:58:14 +0000

[...] Mookse and The Gripes, whose recent coverage has also included Aharon Appelfeld’s 144 page Badenheim 1939 and the 103 pager The Invention of Morel from Adolfo Bioy Cesares. His Futile Preoccupations, a new [...]

By: Trevor

Trevor — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:17:45 +0000

Perec is the author of “A Void” yes?

It’s true, cb. And Godine has it as well!

By: cbjames

cbjames — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 14:25:58 +0000

Perec is the author of “A Void” yes? I’ll have to look into these. They look great and sound like very good reading, too.

By: Randy

Randy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 18:37:29 +0000

Thanks for bringing Godine to my attention. I have wanted to dip into Appelfeld. Personally, how dramatic tension is handled by an author is not on my list of criteria I am mindful of. But then again, I acknowledge I am odd that way…

By: mr waggish

mr waggish — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:15:00 +0000

I thought Badenheim 1939 was one of the weaker Appelfeld novels because the encroaching horror is telegraphed very directly at times, making the whole thing a bit heavy-handed. In contrast, his novels set post-war are beautiful in avoiding the issues headon.

For my money, the absolute best entry in the Godine series is Donoso’s brilliant, surreal The Obscene Bird of Night.

By: John Self

John Self — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:00:04 +0000

Perhaps it’s just that cover illustration. It looks like a school textbook or a guidebook to me.

By: Trevor

Trevor — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:35:31 +0000

I am surprised you don’t like the cover design, John. I always figured you and I had similar tastes, or something close to it. I think they are nicely understated :) . Perhaps it helps to see several of them together. I’ll be posting more, just to see if it becomes worth the carbon points to you.

By: John Self

John Self — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:17:31 +0000

I must admit that those spines are lovely, though I’m relieved that I don’t like the cover design at all so fortunately I’ll be sparing the world the carbon require to fly a phalanx of Godines across the Atlantic.

As kimbofo indicates, this book is available in the UK as a Penguin Modern Classic, with an introduction by Gabriel Josipovici. I read it a few years ago and thought it was just sublime.