Sep 07 2023
The jacket copy from the Süddeutsche Zeitung edition of Jaan Kross’ historical novel The Tsar’s Madman, first published in 1978, is tough to beat for a concise summary. “In his diary, Jakob Mättik tells the dramatic story of his brother-in-law, the Baltic German nobleman Timotheus von Bock, who won not only renown in 1812 in …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/09/07/der-verruckte-des-zaren-by-jaan-kross/
Aug 25 2023
Thirty years ago this spring I read half of Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain) during travels in southern Europe and stopped when I was no longer spending long stretches of time on busses or ferries, waiting for same, or otherwise doing the things that young people do when they have plenty of time and little …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/08/25/der-zauberberg-by-thomas-mann/
May 01 2023
For some readers, Galsan Tschinag’s description of hard nomadic life in the Altai mountain region of Mongolia’s furthest western reaches in the 1950s will be enough. Der blaue Himmel — which could reasonably be translated as The Blue Sky or Blue Heaven — is a fictionalized memoir of a few years in a boy’s life, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/05/01/der-blaue-himmel-by-galsan-tschinag/
Mar 08 2023
This bleak graphic novel follows the Viking-Age return of Hallstein Thordson to his Icelandic home. Seven years earlier, the Althing exiled him for his crimes. Now he’s come back looking, if not for redemption, then at least for rest at his father’s homestead. Alas, he returns to find his father dead and his stepmother wary …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2023/03/08/the-exile-by-erik-kriek/
Dec 22 2022
reissued in full color throughout, with the colors exquisitely done by John Dallaire. I remember the first time I read the first book in this series. Having been a bit of a Greek mythology buff in my youth, I was completely blown away by how historically accurate Eric Shanower was in his depiction of the …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/12/22/age-of-bronze-betrayal-part-one-by-eric-shanower/
Oct 31 2022
What a fun way to get into the mood for spooky season, as we follow a pair of sibling monster hunters on the trail of an unusual killer in early 20th century New York! To most eyes, Rosemary and Aaron Harker are an orphaned brother and sister living quietly as adults in New Haven, Connecticut, …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/10/31/uncanny-times-huntsmen-1-by-laura-anne-gilman/
Jul 24 2022
Henryk Sienkiewicz, an early Nobel laureate, wrote historical novels set mostly in the days of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that, like Shakespeare’s history plays, have a resonance well beyond their initial audiences and historical settings. Sienkiewicz lived and wrote at a time when Poland’s imperial neighbors had erased it from the map of Europe, and yet …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2022/07/24/on-the-field-of-glory-by-henryk-sienkiewicz/
Dec 30 2021
There’s a live recording of a Bruce Springsteen song — “The River,” I think — with a long spoken introduction in which Springsteen talks about his difficult relationship with his father. The elder Springsteen, a veteran of World War II, didn’t understand what his son was doing with his long hair and his late nights and his …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/12/30/outside-the-gates-of-eden-by-lewis-shiner/
Oct 17 2021
I admired the conception of Das Erwachen (The Awakening) more than I enjoyed its execution. As Josef Ruederer’s widow Elisabeth wrote in an brief introductory note, “[He] wanted to portray life — history and people — in his home city through the nineteenth century up to the present [1916] in a four-volume novel.” Unfortunately, he …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/10/17/das-erwachen-by-josef-ruederer/
Jun 26 2021
Let me just say up front that I loved all four main characters in Utopia Avenue and didn’t want anything bad to happen to them ever. It’s a good thing I wasn’t in charge, then, as that would have made for a dull novel. David Mitchell not only had the skill to create people who …
Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2021/06/26/utopia-avenue-by-david-mitchell/
Al Singh
Doug Merrill
Doreen Sheridan
John Pitzel
Lars N. Goldschlager
Laura Eilers
Professor X
Robert Maedgen
Sylvere Ap Leanan
The Shire