WBBC Reviews: Belladonna by Daša Drndić

[@whatpageareyouon]

hearing the eloquence of "mosaic of misery" next to "what kind of sick fuck" is music to my ears. As always, a wonderful--and well researched and craftfully contextualized--onslaught of bookish thoughts Dan. Your thoughtfulness in your reviews is something I always take as example to emulate.

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

You more than surpass my critical capabilities on an everyday basis, Alex, but I will take the compliment and say, "Thank you!" (As my husband so regularly advises me to do.) #Sadcore BookTubers of the world, unite and take over! Sick Fuck Readathon will be the literary sensation of 2020.

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

Hahaha, this was fantastic! And I really admire Dasa Drndic's work, so sad that she died last year. I met her once at a book event because we have the same German publisher. Such a gentle, lovely woman.

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

Thanks, Britta! And how cool that you all moved in the same literary circles! It's funny that, while her prose can often feel grim and merciless (in the best possible way!) she projected such warmth, person-to-person. Sad that I'll never have an opportunity to hear her read some of her work live.

[@LauraFreyReadinginBed]

I had this book out from the library, but it got lost in the shuffle and I had to return it unread. I really need to get back to it. I also love Everything is Illuminated, and these themes make me think of Say Nothing, obviously it's not a novel, but The Troubles is also so much about collaborators, and memory. Eileen Chang comes to mind too. Your secretaries are adorable, if a little chaotic!

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

It's definitely a challenging read, both formally and because of the heavy subject matter, so I had to give myself a lot of time to get through it--according to Goodreads, it took me a full month to finish even though it's under 400 pages! (Of course, managing my secretaries takes up a lot of my spare time these days.) Do you have a favorite Eileen Chang? I've heard lots of high praise for her, but know virtually nothing about the content of her writing.

[@BookishTexan]

Amazing video. I've never read anything by Drndic. I suppose the most political novels I've ever read are Zola's _Germinal_ , Bolano's _2666_ , Sartre, and Vonnegut. Or, Jonathan Safran Foer's _Everything Is Illuminated_ .

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

Ooh, good picks! Funny enough, Drndić gives Everything Is Illuminated a significant shout-out in Belladonna (among everything else going on in the novel, she does a series of paragraph-long reviews of the books her protagonist is reading.) And I definitely need to read more Zola--I always think of him as "Balzac with the humor turned way down and the cruelty turned way up."

[@BookishTexan]

@@WeirdBookBookClub I agree about Zola. As a result I've only ever made my way through _Germinal_ . I will look for _Belladonna_ next time I am out book shopping. It sounds really interesting and who doesn't need to read grim reality over the holidays?

[@jD-P8g3s]

Reading it now, a search for opinion led me here. I share your views, and it's funny that I'm half way in and I want to re-read. I feel I'm missing lots of things like Andreas relationships with the people he discusses. Good vid. I've subscribed.

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

Hey, thanks! I also felt pretty overwhelmed while reading this one, so it helped me as well to seek out reviews and compare my own reading experience against them. The relationships do get quite confusing at times, especially when you're trying to figure out who's a fictional character and who are the real historical/contemporary figures. Lots to untangle.

[@KnowledgelostOrgOnline]

Belladonna is such a hard book to review, but I’m very impressed with the shit you managed to verbalise, I think you did the book justice. It’s the only one novel from the late great Daša Drndić, but would love to read everything she has written. PS. I need to listen to Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness for some odd reason 🤔

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

That's a fantastic compliment, Michael, thank you! With so much going on in the novel, it was a struggle deciding where to begin. Can't make up my mind whether I want to try EEG or Doppelgänger next--hopefully even more gets translated soon to make my choice harder still. Ah, Billy Corgan, my #1 problematic fav of 90s rock. I keep praying he'll stop speaking in public so I can continue enjoying my old SP albums.

[@KnowledgelostOrgOnline]

I try to avoid knowing anything about the person lives of those songwriters, they all end up disappointing. I will stick to my own void, in the words of the philosopher; Emptiness is loneliness, and loneliness is cleanliness, And cleanliness is godliness, and god is empty just like me

[@beyondtheepilogueagnes]

This was awesome! 😂👏🏼 Loved the book and I think it definitely deserves more attention.

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

Glad you enjoyed it! I'm looking forward to reading EEG and Doppelgänger in the coming year. Do you have a favorite by her?

[@beyondtheepilogueagnes]

Weird Book Book Club Belladonna is the only one I’ve read so far, but I was so impressed that I bought all of her books that are currently available in English translation 😆

[@MarcNash]

top use of X-Ray Spex there... Belladonna, worthy but a real slog to read, not so much for its subject matter, but for its structure. Also if art can change the individual reader, then surely it CAN change the world should enough such readers be changed? Politically engaging novels, now that;'s a big, important question that bother the fuck out of me...

[@WeirdBookBookClub]

Thanks, Marc! I think I'm going to get more creative with the "soundtracks" of my reviews moving forward. The all-over-the-place-ness of Drndić's style did get under my skin at first, but somewhere along the way I started to lose myself in the content of her vignettes and the formal elements sort of faded into the background for me (though I can totally see why other readers would find them bothersome.) Would Lost Children Archive count as a politically engaging novel in your opinion?

[@MarcNash]

@@WeirdBookBookClub As much as I love that novel, probably not as it really focusses on the family dynamics. Her accompanying non-fiction "Tell Me How It ends" is utterly engaged politically