Happy Wednesday everyone! Woah. We are four months down this year. I hope that the year is going great for everyone. I hope and pray that the rest of the year will be brimming with good news, positive energy, and blessings. I also hope that everyone will be happy and healthy, in body, mind, and spirit.

Wednesdays also mean WWW Wednesday updates. WWW Wednesday is a bookish meme hosted originally by SAM@TAKING ON A WORLD OF WORDS. The mechanics for WWW Wednesday are quite simple, you just have to answer three questions:

  1. What are you currently reading?
  2. What have you finished reading?
  3. What will you read next?
www-wednesdays
What are you currently reading?

I am currently binging on the works of Nobel Laureates in Literature. This is a journey I started toward the end of April when I read, in succession, works by Doris Lessing, Herta Müller, and Annie Ernaux. Currently, I am reading World Light, my second novel by Icelandic writer and 1955 laureate Halldór Kiljan Laxness. World Light charted the fortunes of Olafur Kárason. He was an orphan and was raised by a foster family. However, he was bullied by the sons of the family and the parents treated him like a slave. The daughter, Magnina, was sympathetic and even read him books. However, she also mocks him. It did not help Olafur’s case that he was also sickly. The only thing sustaining him was poetry and literature as a whole.

The story then follows Olafur as he grows and develops to be a folk poet. While he tried to make a living out of poetry, his works were always deemed unsatisfactory. This did not preclude Olafur from dreaming of becoming a great poet one day. In a way, World Light is a book about books. Several Icelandic poets and writers were referenced in the story. Another key element of the story, albeit subtly woven into its lush tapestry, was the political discourse. The novel reminded me of Independent People in its probe of Iceland’s socio-economic concerns. It is also verbose and reading it entails focus. I can’t wait to see how Olafur’s finally turns out.

What have you finished reading?

When I resolved to read the works of European Nobel Laureates in Literature, one of the names that immediately came to me was Hermann Hesse. It was through must-read lists that I first encountered the German writer and the 1946 laureate. I liked his novels, Siddhartha and Demian. However, it has been nearly five years since I read Demian and I felt like the time is ripe to revisit his body of work. It was for this reason that I included Narcissus and Goldmund in my ongoing foray into the works of European Nobel Laureates in Literature.

Originally published in 1930, Narcissus and Goldmund charted the fortunes of a young man, the titular Goldmund; his name literally translates to Goldmouth in English. His father sent him to a monastery called Mariabronn in the German countryside; the novel was set in the Medieval period. He was determined to become a monk to atone for his mother’s unspecified sin. The novel’s second main character, Narcissus, however, made him see a different perspective; Narcissus was the youngest teacher in the monastery. Despite being polar opposites, the two young men became friends. After Narcissus unlocked Goldmund’s memories, Goldmund set out on a journey to explore the world, leaving the cloistered halls of the monastery and abandoning his dream of becoming a monk. What ensued was a liberation as Goldmund awakened the passion long pent up in him. It was an attempt to emulate his mother. In a way, the novel’s structure reminded me of Demian and Siddhartha. All three books involved two men, both of whom belonged to extreme ends of the spectrum. One was a catalyst and one was unsure of who he was but a journey altered his perspective. Narcissus and Goldmund reminded me of everything good about Hesse’s oeuvre.

Unlike Hesse, I have never for once explored the works of Patrick Modiano. To be fair, I rarely encounter his works on must-read lists. It was only through the list of awardees of the Nobel Prize in Literature that I learned about him. The French novelist was the 2014 laureate. Since learning about him, I obtained two of his works, one of which was part of my 2024 Beat the Backlist Challenge. However, I mistook Paris Nocturne for The Black Notebook which was the book in the aforementioned challenge.

Nevertheless, I relished my first novel by Modiano. Paris Nocturne was narrated by an unnamed man. His story flashes back to the past as the man recalls his memories of an eventful night three decades in the past. He was walking along by himself when he was clipped by a car.  His injuries were superficial but he was still taken along to a hospital in the company of the driver; he would learn her name, Jacqueline Beausergent, while waiting to be treated. The mysterious woman and her companion vanished once he woke up. In lieu was a sum of money to compensate for his injury. However, the memories of the woman lingered so he set out to find Jacqueline. Jacqueline, we learn, reminds the unnamed narrator of a woman who looked after him in his childhood. Thus commenced the narrator’s nocturnal meandering. There was a sense of nostalgia that hovered above the story; it did remind me a bit of Kazuo Ishiguro’s An Artist of the Floating World, at least, the overall atmosphere did. The book was rather slender and a quick read. However, I was hoping it was longer. Nevertheless, it was an interesting literary experience.

What will you read next?