Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Danish newspaper Politiken doesn't like Lunar Park.
I do not claim that Lunar Park is a masterpiece, nor is it entirely satisfactory, but I do wonder if reviewer Kim Skotte read the Danish translation or the English original? I have not read the Danish version and it may be the best thing since sliced bread, but I doubt it. How can Ellis' language be equally as fluid and funny and clever and moving in Danish? Ellis masters the rhythm and speed of English and this - this - is why I am so enamoured of him. By reviewing a book read in a language other than the original and intended, one can only review the content and that is not solely the point of this type of text.
Lunar Park is extraordinarily moving (and I'm not talking about the second to last passage that clearly rips off Joyce's The Dead) - not scary, as Skotte rightly comments, but infused with a deep, deep sadness - and that is all in the choice of language. Forget about the big mechanical bird and the house that changes itself and the nightly emails - it is all in the swirling descriptions of what it is like - and I am not sure how that translates into Danish.
I may be getting it all wrong and Skotte read this in English and has read the book properly and after all he is a highly esteemed 'rock'n roll' reviewer of literature and who am I? Clearly biased, slightly deluded and deeply in love with Bret Easton Ellis - but I do not accept that this is a disappointing book. Ellis is moving on - and perhaps Skotte needs to do the same.
I do not claim that Lunar Park is a masterpiece, nor is it entirely satisfactory, but I do wonder if reviewer Kim Skotte read the Danish translation or the English original? I have not read the Danish version and it may be the best thing since sliced bread, but I doubt it. How can Ellis' language be equally as fluid and funny and clever and moving in Danish? Ellis masters the rhythm and speed of English and this - this - is why I am so enamoured of him. By reviewing a book read in a language other than the original and intended, one can only review the content and that is not solely the point of this type of text.
Lunar Park is extraordinarily moving (and I'm not talking about the second to last passage that clearly rips off Joyce's The Dead) - not scary, as Skotte rightly comments, but infused with a deep, deep sadness - and that is all in the choice of language. Forget about the big mechanical bird and the house that changes itself and the nightly emails - it is all in the swirling descriptions of what it is like - and I am not sure how that translates into Danish.
I may be getting it all wrong and Skotte read this in English and has read the book properly and after all he is a highly esteemed 'rock'n roll' reviewer of literature and who am I? Clearly biased, slightly deluded and deeply in love with Bret Easton Ellis - but I do not accept that this is a disappointing book. Ellis is moving on - and perhaps Skotte needs to do the same.
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