2016 is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It is also the 452nd anniversary of his birthday, as Shakespeare is believed to have died on his birthday.
I hope you are sharing this beautiful day with a great book and why not, maybe this book is related to William Shakespeare! I myself am indulging in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" :)
“You are always in the right place at exactly the right time, and you always have been.”
I have been in (an artistic) love with Ethan Hawke since I was in high school back in the late '90s and I saw him starring in "Great Expectations", an adaptation of Charles Dickens' novel. I followed his artistic career with the steady care of someone who wants to discover if Ethan Hawke was more than a pretty face. And he definitely is more than that. He is an extraordinary actor, getting better and better with each part and each year passing by, but he is also a fantastic writer. He is the proof that you can be a Hollywood star and still go beyond the shallowness of it all by writing.
He can act in thrillers, romantic or horror movies and impress me deeply. He is my favorite Hamlet (2000) and Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) is among my all time favorite movies.
“Like a dead branch falling from a tree, which them decomposes and nourishes the soil, your disappointments can transform into the elements of change and growth.”
A few years ago I read his Ash Wednesday and the novel came as a shock of how well he can write about love, marriage and the intricacies they imply.
On the same note, last year in November he launched his "Rules for a Knight", a small book full of pieces of advice and wisdom about how to raise your children in an authentic way and what lessons you should teach them. I received the (signed) book in January and I really loved it. So simple, yet so true, just as any serious matter of life... and finally, death, and what happens in-between.
Here is Ethan talking about his book:
The 41 year old Romanian writer Lucian Dan Teodorovici is the one whose book "The Other Love Stories" (2009) I managed to read in March and I can honestly say I was expecting more from these stories, but taking into account that this was the first book I had read penned by him, I guess so much expectation was a faux pas and it probably stemmed from the fact that after reading or rather being imbued by Cartarescu's writing, I want all other books to impress me as much...
Still, the book manages to leave me with some thoughts on how time flies, on how nothing is what it seems and, cliched as it may seem, still waters run deep. And if you expect a lot of romantic, syrupy-like love, you will be disappointed. Even though the writer himself states on his site that the stories have a common theme and that is of lost love, I did not actually felt them as such.
Out of the 11 short stories, the ones that I enjoyed the most were "Goose Chase" and "A Few Kilometers Back". Here are a few lines from "Goose Chase":
Grandfather swore in his turn when he saw that our geese with
the Nike mark were nowhere to be found. And he began to go
from house to house, looking for the geese. I followed him, more
out of curiosity than anything else, although my grandfather let
me tag along because he imagined that I, at the age of eight, had
keener eyes and could spot things that he, at the age of sixty, was
unable to. In the end, it turned out to be a good thing that he
took me along. Because, while he was in a neighbour’s yard, I remained
in the lane, bouncing up and down the rather deflated ball
I’d brought from home so as not to grow bored during the search.
And as my grandfather was talking to the neighbour in the yard,
a gap-toothed, hare-lipped friend of mine came up. I told him our
geese had been stolen and he said: “I fink I know who shtole them. They were on the corner of
the shtreet,” he said pointing to the place. “And that gypshy
who nicked our ball that time when we were playing football on
the pitch by the railway shtation turned up,” he added. “Honest.
He was holding a shwitch and I shaw him driving the geesh up
there to the water tower. I don’t know if they were yoursh, but
they had marks and I even thought, what the devil, gypshies
don’t mark their geesh.”
L. D. Teodorovici has published books in Italian, Spanish, French and German and has written novels, short stories, scripts and plays.
What have you read for the Romanian Writers Challenge? :)
