How funny, having never read The Last Samurai—likely because the title conjured up images that were not that interesting to me—the other day in the NYT I read about a woman who has just finished reading it and who waxed prosaic about it at length... which of course means my interest is now piqued and I will have to read it.
I am not a big re-reader, though there are a few books I like to return to again and again. Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Reufle always grounds me in a particular way, as does Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (a book I have given away so many times that I am probably on my 6th or 7th copy). I've read A Confederacy of Dunces an embarrassing number of times, which is weird because I'm not a huge reader of absurdist humor, but it still makes me laugh out loud, 30+ years after the first time I read it.
Around Easter this year, I wandered into a second hand book store in one of our bigger local village and had a wonderful conversation with the owner about American Politics. I had decided I should try to read some fiction in French, and the first thing that jumped into my hands was a copy of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, a collection I must have read about 35 years ago, when I was 10-years-old or so. It seemed sensible that my first science fiction author should also be my first novel read in French. (I've tried reading Antarctica by Claire Keegan in French, side by side with the English version, but it didn't stick). So here I am, re-reading The Martian Chronicles. I am an inveterate bathtub reader, so I don't have a dictionary or translation app at hand, and have mostly muscled through, reading under my breath and missing at least 10 percent of the florid adjectives and verbs. But I am getting through it, and following each story as rapt as I did the first time around.
What shocks me about this experience is not that I remember the stories precisely or anything, but rather that I remember the feeling so many of these stories evoked the first time I read them. There is a certain poignant sadness and injustice and sometimes wry humor in the first handful of stories and I FEEL similar sensations to my childhood readings and that fills me with an eerie delight.
I wonder how many novels I would benefit from re-reading in French?
Your Polish/Russian forays are impressive. Ambitious. Unimaginable.
Love that you write about reading. It's such a pleasure to see you land in my inbox.
That’s amazing that you saw something by another person reading The Last Samurai recently. Bibliosynchronicity! I’ll have to look up that article. I’m glad you bring up rereading something in translation. I was just thinking of reading translated works, or a different translation of something you’ve read before, as sort of a subset of rereading. I want to do more of that kind of rereading too. For example, I’ve read Madame Bovary in an old translation but I have on my shelf Lydia Davis’s translation, which I fully intend to read soon! My French isn’t good enough to read Flaubert in the original, but I have a feeling I’ll come back to that language some day—it was my first intellectual love. I love hearing about your adventures in French! Keep em coming!
Aaaaaah so - I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to know that you are another Last Samurai re-reader, but I’ll try… I’ve always felt a real loneliness in knowing that there were lots of other people who were weirdly obsessed with reading and rereading that incredible novel, but I didn’t seem to know any of them in person – and now I do!
Your delicious writing about this wonderful book has inspired me to give it another reread, because it has been years now – and I wonder how my perceptions of it have changed because I know how much I have changed.
I loved your musings here on this book and on the power of rereading, and I’m also a huge lifelong fan of A Little Princess. I also love, imagining younger you toiling over Polish at your carrel in your turtleneck and overalls with the pocket stuffed and overflowing full of pens.
Thank you for reading and thank you for writing, and thank you for sharing it all here with us. You are such a delight!
Yay, I’m so glad we have love for at least 2 books in common! I thought I might find an online cult of The Last Samurai fans when I started looking, but I don’t know anyone else personally who has read and reread it and thought about it for 24 years. Except you! I bet we could find more beloved novels in common if we tried.
Not a re-reader generally so I relate. This book has been on my shelf for literally 20 years… held onto it through multiple purges but never have prioritized it. I am going to read it by year’s end, thanks to you.
That makes me so happy! Let me know what you think. It’s interesting, the books we keep. I’m a big believer in the unread library…in fact I’m pretty sure there’s a Japanese word for that.
How funny, having never read The Last Samurai—likely because the title conjured up images that were not that interesting to me—the other day in the NYT I read about a woman who has just finished reading it and who waxed prosaic about it at length... which of course means my interest is now piqued and I will have to read it.
I am not a big re-reader, though there are a few books I like to return to again and again. Madness, Rack, and Honey by Mary Reufle always grounds me in a particular way, as does Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (a book I have given away so many times that I am probably on my 6th or 7th copy). I've read A Confederacy of Dunces an embarrassing number of times, which is weird because I'm not a huge reader of absurdist humor, but it still makes me laugh out loud, 30+ years after the first time I read it.
Around Easter this year, I wandered into a second hand book store in one of our bigger local village and had a wonderful conversation with the owner about American Politics. I had decided I should try to read some fiction in French, and the first thing that jumped into my hands was a copy of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, a collection I must have read about 35 years ago, when I was 10-years-old or so. It seemed sensible that my first science fiction author should also be my first novel read in French. (I've tried reading Antarctica by Claire Keegan in French, side by side with the English version, but it didn't stick). So here I am, re-reading The Martian Chronicles. I am an inveterate bathtub reader, so I don't have a dictionary or translation app at hand, and have mostly muscled through, reading under my breath and missing at least 10 percent of the florid adjectives and verbs. But I am getting through it, and following each story as rapt as I did the first time around.
What shocks me about this experience is not that I remember the stories precisely or anything, but rather that I remember the feeling so many of these stories evoked the first time I read them. There is a certain poignant sadness and injustice and sometimes wry humor in the first handful of stories and I FEEL similar sensations to my childhood readings and that fills me with an eerie delight.
I wonder how many novels I would benefit from re-reading in French?
Your Polish/Russian forays are impressive. Ambitious. Unimaginable.
Love that you write about reading. It's such a pleasure to see you land in my inbox.
That’s amazing that you saw something by another person reading The Last Samurai recently. Bibliosynchronicity! I’ll have to look up that article. I’m glad you bring up rereading something in translation. I was just thinking of reading translated works, or a different translation of something you’ve read before, as sort of a subset of rereading. I want to do more of that kind of rereading too. For example, I’ve read Madame Bovary in an old translation but I have on my shelf Lydia Davis’s translation, which I fully intend to read soon! My French isn’t good enough to read Flaubert in the original, but I have a feeling I’ll come back to that language some day—it was my first intellectual love. I love hearing about your adventures in French! Keep em coming!
Aaaaaah so - I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to know that you are another Last Samurai re-reader, but I’ll try… I’ve always felt a real loneliness in knowing that there were lots of other people who were weirdly obsessed with reading and rereading that incredible novel, but I didn’t seem to know any of them in person – and now I do!
Your delicious writing about this wonderful book has inspired me to give it another reread, because it has been years now – and I wonder how my perceptions of it have changed because I know how much I have changed.
I loved your musings here on this book and on the power of rereading, and I’m also a huge lifelong fan of A Little Princess. I also love, imagining younger you toiling over Polish at your carrel in your turtleneck and overalls with the pocket stuffed and overflowing full of pens.
Thank you for reading and thank you for writing, and thank you for sharing it all here with us. You are such a delight!
Yay, I’m so glad we have love for at least 2 books in common! I thought I might find an online cult of The Last Samurai fans when I started looking, but I don’t know anyone else personally who has read and reread it and thought about it for 24 years. Except you! I bet we could find more beloved novels in common if we tried.
I believe it! Let’s compare shelves sometime - & I want your recommendations, too! Happy to belong to this TLS cult of 2! 💜
Not a re-reader generally so I relate. This book has been on my shelf for literally 20 years… held onto it through multiple purges but never have prioritized it. I am going to read it by year’s end, thanks to you.
That makes me so happy! Let me know what you think. It’s interesting, the books we keep. I’m a big believer in the unread library…in fact I’m pretty sure there’s a Japanese word for that.
Tsundoku! It’s my religion.
Yes! I just had to look it up. Helen DeWitt would have known it off the top of her head, like you did. lol!
Loved this one
My favorite reread is “A Story Like The Wind”. I am not drawn too much toward all the books you review, Sarah…but I do enjoy your reviews!