Well, I finished Identity, by Milan Kundera. I’d read it for a book club, but wound up missing most of the book club meeting. That’s neither here nor there, however. Most of the participants found the ending to be disappointing. For the most part, I agree. However, as I consider the book more, I wonder if somehow it isn’t more fitting than at first blush.

There are two main characters in Identity: lovers Chantal and Jean-Marc. The focus of the book, I realized later, seems to be Chantal. It’s her identity that’s really being questioned and changed. Jean-Marc strikes me as a static character. He serves as observer of Chantal, often observing at times when she doesn’t even realize he’s there, and as one agent of change in Chantal. His character, though, seems to serve mainly to help us in our exploration of who Chantal is.

It would have helped to see some of that while I was reading Identity. Alas I didn’t, and I will have to reread it someday. It probably won’t be too soon, however, as the book is infused with melancholy, and I find that melancholy is best in small, infrequent doses.

On a final note, Kundera’s voice in Identity is interesting. There’s a simplicity to the narration that contrasts with the complex ideas that the characters seem determined to discuss. I wonder how translation affects that, since Kundera’s native language is Czech, but he wrote Identity in French and I read an English translation.

Prepositions in German are an intriguing sort of torture. Prepositions on their own are often bad, since they rarely translate directly into other languages. Just try it with a handful of French and English ones.

German adds to this problem however, by tying prepositions to cases. There are prepositions which take the accusative case, prepositions which take the dative case, and prepositions which take either the accusative or the dative depending on whether there is motion. And if it confuses you to read that, just try putting it to use in a sentence.

English is blissfully simple in comparison.

Once again, it has been far too long since I’ve updated.

With regard to reading, I’ve finished Le Petit Nicolas by René Goscinny, which was very amusing. The French is pretty easy (not too much new vocabulary; passé composé and l’imparfait, but no passé simple), and each stories ends with an amusing little twist. I’d highly recommend it. I’m still in the middle (okay, the beginning) of Harry Potter à L’école des Sorciers. I think I will stay there for a while, since I still feel like I need to work my way up to it. I have Le Petit Prince as a PDF, but I might get it in paper. There are also several titles put out by Gallimard Jeunesse that interest me.

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if Gallimard or Gallimard Jeunesse only does translations or original French works as well?

I’ve also begun Identity by Milan Kundera. I’m not yet sure what I think of that. I’m also in the middle of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce, but I’ve been reading the Project Gutenberg edition and I’d rather have a dead tree edition. Lastly, I picked up Ivanhoe recently. I haven’t read that since I was in sixth grade. It looked a lot bigger then.

I should spend more time updating on what I have read, rather than what I’m in the middle of–or, you know, read more.

On the languages front (not related to books):

I’ve been going to French meetups, which I consider a testament to the internet’s ability to bring people together. I’m also taking German again, so you can expect complaints about German grammar fairly soon.