Episode 448: Camera Sent In, So Now I Wait

Dad drove me down to the Canon service centre in Keppel Bay Tower. Have left instructions to rush the repair, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be done in time. Otherwise, I'll just swap cameras with my dad. Anyway, today's book was Alessandro Baricco's Without Blood. I love reading continental European writers in translation, partly because the results always seem musical to me, although how much of that is due to the inherent nature of the original languages and how much to the actual content of the writing is difficult for me to disentangle. I'll admit that Baricco was an author whose books I initially purchased entirely on the basis that Vintage published them, but having read Silk over the summer, and now, Without Blood, I can safely say I don't regret that choice. May try to squeeze in time to read one of his longer novels before I fly back, either Ocean Sea or City. For now though, am re-reading Donna Tartt's The Secret History, before moving on to The Little Friend. I think I first read the former in JC, when Liling lent me her copy. I loved it then, but re-reading it now, as someone going through the same stage of life as the main characters, it's setting up resonances that the novel couldn't have had for me before. In particular, I see bits of myself in Richard Papen that chime disconcertingly with things that I've felt, about class, privilege, university life, etc. In any case, it's really a novel that bears re-reading well. Am looking forward to her third novel too, although slightly annoyed that she's switched publishers, which is going to disrupt my nice collection on the shelf.